
Herbivory is an unavoidable part of a plant’s life. In summary, our results demonstrate that plants incorporate a variety of independent signals connected with their herbivores to regulate and mount their defense responses. These results indicate a potential signaling cascade involving herbivore-associated elicitors, Ca 2+, and ROS in plants during insect feeding. Interestingly, PF OS-induced ROS increase was abolished in the presence of a Ca 2+ chelator, BAPTA-AM (1,2-bis(o-aminophenoxy)ethane- N, N, N′, N′-tetraacetic acid). ROS production was also suppressed in the presence of an antioxidant NAC ( N-acetyl- L-cysteine). Elevation in ROS generation was saturated after ~140 s of PF OS application. sexta OS generates significantly higher ROS while artificial diet-fed (DF) caterpillar OS failed to induce ROS in isolated tomato protoplasts. By using a dye-based ROS imaging approach, our study shows that application of plant-fed (PF) M. In this study, we show that tobacco hornworm caterpillar ( Manduca sexta) oral secretion (OS) induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) in tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum) protoplasts. However, herbivore-associated elicitors and the intrinsic downstream modulator of such interactions remain less understood. Over millions of years of coexistence, plants have evolved the ability to sense insect feeding via herbivore-associated elicitors in oral secretions, which can mobilize defense responses. Plants are under constant attack by a suite of insect herbivores.
